Brewer Defends Spending Plan

Phoenix, AZ – Arizonans agreed four years ago to hike tobacco taxes by 80 centsa pack to fund programs for early childhood health and education.Proposition 302 asks voters to overturn that decision -- at leastpartly. It would kill the programs but keep the tax proceeds.Only thing is, the current $9.1 billion budget is built on theassumption the measure will pass. But Brewer won't campaign forit and instead is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

(If the voters determine they don't want to support those ballotpropositions, then we'll have to go in and adjust the budgetaccordingly. It will add up to a few million dollars that wedon't have.)

That few million actually translates to a $450 million hole inthe budget. But Brewer denied it was irresponsible to adopt aspending plan based on what might not happen.

(Well, you know, it's as responsible as a budget can be. Thebottom line is that we know that the budget is based onprojections going into the future. And we're projecting thatpeople will look at, take real consideration in determining if theywant to support those propositions or not.)

The governor said there is no contingency plan if the measurefails. For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard Fischer.